creative writing, cretive web design, and many anxieties

[candycanearter07]

Hi,

I know this section is saturated with so, so many articles of this type including some by mine but I'm kinda covering a different ish section of this so hopefully I don't get struck down for this but like

How do you come up with stuff to write about/pages to make and stuff? And like get yourself to work consistently? I feel like my site is becoming stagnant and uninteresting and stuff and I feel very stuck and stuff and IDK what to do

sorry

[brisray]

Really, personal sites come down to you, what you want to do and what you want them to look like.

Some people's sites look great, my site design is very plain but I write longish articles and want them to be readable.

The content should probably be something that you are interested in or your thoughts and feelings. Here's a site about telephone boxes! The great thing about our sites is that we are not under pressure to change them or add to them all the time. It might be all you need is a little break and not stress over it.

I keep a little document where I write notes about what I want to write about. I think some will never be web pages but some should be at some time or other

What you write about doesn't even have to be popular. Our sites belong to us and we can do what you like with them. 

[vance]

I'm sorry that you're feeling that way. :c It's just the web craft version of writer's block, I suppose... But I do wonder if maybe you're putting some pressure and expectations on yourself that don't need to be there. Like, when you say your content is "uninteresting", who are you worried about being in interested in it or not? Or, why do you feel like being consistent with updates is important? It seems fine to me to have a site that gets updated only when the mood strikes, and sometimes there might be long patches in between those "strikes", but so what? Your title also suggests to me that you're feeling a pressure to "be creative enough", but why is that necessary? Your site doesn't have to exist to please anyone else or meet anyone's standards. (Or, I don't know, maybe it's important to you that it DOES serve some concrete purpose? I guess only you can decide that.)

I wonder if it would help to do some thinking on what it is that made you want to create a website in the first place. Thinking about what it really means to you might bring you back closer to that spark of inspiration. Or ask yourself, what have been some of the most rewarding experiences you've had with your website so far, and what would bring you closer to that again?

As for the specific question of coming up with ideas for content, you might be interested in this page of prompts from 32-bit Cafe!

Wishing you luck finding your groove again with your site! (By which I don't mean "making more updates again" but just, "feeling happy about your experience of making it")

[patchworkghoul]

First of all don't worry about your site going stagnant. The way that I see sites is as a slow burn creativity. It's not like social media where people are expecting daily updates or where you need to update a certain amount of times in order to even be shown to people who follow you. and I think most people making websites understand that... while they like seeing updates from you, there's no expectation for it to be quick. I know we put pressure on ourselves for things, but I just wanted to point that out.

to answer your question, I get a lot of my inspiration from other sites, which is how I've always done this. I was making websites in 1998 and that's kind of what we did back then too. you don't blatantly rip off anything of course, but you might read something on someone's site that sparks an idea for your site. for example, I saw a lot of people with their personal manifesto and online manifesto so I made my own (personal and writers manifesto in my case). I've seen people with pages that allow people to download and print their zines, so I made my own. obviously with my own design and my own zines but it wasn't an original idea.

outside of that I come at it depending on the purpose of the site. I'm very vague about it, but I consider my site sort of the digital manifestation of my creative brain. lots of half finished stuff waiting for a new idea to rejuvenate it, some things that are interest-based because of what inspires me, a writing journal because I'm a writer, etc. I don't mind if it's messy because my head is messy. I am the audience for my site so I really just put anything up there that's relevant to my creativity. I keep a list of site ideas too, I don't always use them but keeping the list helps. I don't always have ideas when I'm sitting in front of the computer.

for consistency I just kind of forced myself to do something sitely at least once a week. this is based on my personal goals to stay engaged with my creative activities so it's in line with other things that I do weekly. I'm not necessarily updating my site weekly, most of the time I'm doing something offline - seeking out fun new code to see if I might be able to use it or browsing sites to enjoy others. it all contributes to the same general thing. but you get to set your own pace!

[wygolvillage]

Each addition to my site I view as a self contained little project. Whenever I have a new project idea I always think first of how it can fit onto my website and I think about what I want to experience on a website rather than what I want others to see. I always focus on making things fun and immersive for Me, Personally